Posted: 1/15/2010
Dean Martha N. Hill, PhD, RN, has named assistant professor Elizabeth (Beth) Sloand, PhD, CRNP, to serve as the organizer and spokeswoman for all Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing (JHUSON) relief efforts aimed at Haiti.
Sloand will be coordinating JHUSON initiatives with those of the university and its other divisions. She reports that “the immediate need is for financial support to relief agencies that are already on the ground in Haiti bringing vital supplies of food, water, and shelter.”
“Haiti has a way of getting under your skin and into your soul,” says Sloand, a pediatric nurse practitioner, who has spent considerable time in Haiti over the past ten years as clinician, researcher, and teacher. She is extremely knowledgeable regarding the capabilities and limitations of its infrastructure and health systems. She just returned from Haiti in October leading a multidisciplinary medical mission team in the Jeremie area of Haiti and plans to return with public health nursing students in late February. “I, like many others, feel I have little choice but to continue returning to Haiti to do whatever I can to help.”
Sloand regularly takes undergraduate and graduate nursing students to Jeremie, Haiti to participate in a variety of activities including conducting community assessments, working with public health agencies, and providing primary care (read blogs by Hopkins nursing students in Haiti). She began her involvement in Haiti by spending some of her personal time in a rural clinic in southwest Haiti providing care to villagers for problems like infections, injuries, chronic hypertension, and malnutrition.
According to Hill, Beth is well-known for her work in Haiti and her on-the-ground knowledge and relationships there and with Hopkins Nursing faculty, students, and alumni. She will be key to ensuring our efforts have the greatest impact.
Reporters wishing to speak with Sloand on emergency and ongoing health care issues in Haiti should contact Lynn Schultz-Writsel, director of the Office of Marketing and Communications at The Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, 410-955-7552 (office), 571-228-8309 (cell) or [email protected].